Barack Obama’s Narrative Illusions

For the past few days I have been regretting my inability to sell two op-eds I wrote when Barack Obama was first running for president. Both failed to win the favor of the editors of the Wall Street Journal and other fine venues — I suspect because they were, essentially, novelistic insights offered as journalism. But as it turned out (since I’m really quite a good novelist!) they were both rather perspicacious and I wish I had gotten them into print.

One of them was about the peculiar way Barack Obama lies, which is not like the way other politicians lie. Our own Roger Simon has just posted a thoughtful and insightful essay on this very subject. And I, when I couldn’t sell my op-ed, put some of my observations into my Klavan on the Culture video series “Talking Crap” (see above). So the idea is now pretty well covered.

The other unpublished op-ed, however, is more to the point of the present moment. It was based on Obama’s answer to the usual campaign question: “Why do you want to be president?” His answer, which I can no longer find to quote verbatim, had to do with how inspiring it would be to black children to see him sworn in on Inauguration Day.

That, I wrote at the time, is not a reason to be president. It’s a reason to play the president, as an actor plays a role. In this long-ago unpublished op-ed, I used my novelistic x-ray vision to look into the then-candidate’s soul and point out that this was not a man who actually wanted to do — or was even capable of doing — the work of a chief executive. He just thought it would be an all around Good Thing if he could live out his fantasy of being in that part.

It is now apparent to any honest observer that Obama is a rank incompetent too arrogant and foolish to alter his political philosophy even after reality has proven it false. As his record at the time of his original candidacy should have warned us, he has no business in the Oval Office. He simply isn’t up for the job.

Nothing that happens between inauguration day 2009 and inauguration day 2017 will matter to this narcissistic fool of a 'president'. In his mind he'll have been a monumental success - never mind the wide swath of cause-and-effect BS - in his mind things would have been oh-so-much-worse had he never graced us with his leadership.

Thats the narrative according to Zero and nothing else matters. And true believers on the left swallow that narrative hook line and sinker.

Seeing this now, and finally absorbing the political reality, the facts are harsh. Americans twice elected the man with the radical past, at least the ideological portion. The personal stuff is all sealed, or the President and his lawyers are literally engaged in one maneuver after the other to fend off cases that might imperil both his Presidency and his freedom. Sadly, most of the top pundits on conservative sites continue to pretend away these challenges and to mock those bringing them. So, the elements of the tragedy are multi-fold, and include the ignorant "LIVs" but also conservative intellectuals whose political self-image as the most patriotic of Americans trumps the true application of the ethical and religious doctrines that they profess. The US is now in another political reality very far removed from Constitutional government. This includes many of the actions of the most powerful Congressmen now protecting the Administration and themselves.

Andrew - I was really disappointed when Klavan on the Culture disappeared from PJTV. Your videos (like Bill Whittle's Firewall & Afterburner) were really good tools for getting through to some of my more, er... *cough*thickheaded*cough* "progressive" friends. The humor does a great job of lowering their guard and opening them to reason. I'd love to see you make some more of these!

Two thoughts on your excellent post. You eloquently describe colossal incompetence. No one can counter you. The President has zero ability to do his job.And yet, please consider that is exactly why he was given the presidency, and why liberals prop him up continually. He is there to empower the Democrat Party and liberals. In the “For those of us” paragraph you list horrid accomplishments by his administration. I submit he had zero participation in all of them. All of those things were done by people he empowered. When he dares to speak without using what someone gave him to say, he cannot form coherent sentences. And he cannot lead. He likely has not worked on a single initiative his administration has done since he won office. The fact is the people he empowered do not need him. All they need is his signature. They do not need his ideas, his motivation, or his leading, They do fine with zero input from him.

My second thought: thank you for writing he “lost the gains of the Iraq war and sacrificed the lives of our soldiers in Afghanistan”. That is why I am here. I am desperate to get someone who can be heard to say that the fact Americans are barred from supporting our soldiers in this War, is encouraging the enemy soldiers fighting them. That is what keeps me barred from Janine Turner, and why I am posting here to her columns hoping she will finally see me and my request for our soldiers. But now I post here hoping you will see it and do it for her. I could list others I have tried to reach (many) but right now I focus on you. Please help our soldiers fighting now by writing a simple column which will finally allow Americans to bring down enemy morale. Janine Turner’s people forbid me to use her for that purpose (since October, 2011).

"I like being President. And it turns out I'm pretty good at it."-- Barack Obama, February 2009

This is one of my favorite Obama quotes, right up there with "Look, why can't I just eat my waffle?" and "I believe if you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody". He said it after being President for about a MONTH... and it's disappeared down the memory hole.

Andrew: Thank you for clarifying the state of things. I get it, and your readers get it. But will tens of millions of our deluded countrymen?

Might I presume to bring a usage question to your attention? I admire your writing, and so would appreciate your response. You write in the last clause of your last sentence: " . . . a narrative illusion fostered on us by those who do not believe there is any truth to tell."

True. Spot-on in substance. But should not "fostered" be "foisted," as it is followed immediately by the prepositional phrase "on us"? Of course, had you not written "on us," the choice of "fostered" would have been entirely appropriate (as in "a narrative illusion fostered by those who do not believe there is any truth to tell").

In Andrew's 2009 video, he laughs at Obama's claim of being "student of history". But O could actually have been telling the truth! It depends on WHAT history O was talking about. That's probably the history of how charismatic leaders can do pretty much anything with impunity when the propagandizing media is more than willing to cover for him.

Will Obamacare be repealed or won't it? Will Congress fund it or won't it? Blah, blah, blah. We the people just need to do what we need to do and Congress be damned. Resist. Refuse. Revolt. EXEMPT OURSELVES! We did not comply with Prohibition and we simply should not comply with Obamacare. For religious reasons. For privacy reasons. For the cause of liberty and freedom and in protest of the idea that the federal government (under one party rule, no less), can force private citizens to purchase anything with our own money. Are we citizens or subjects? Mice or men(women)? Just say NO to socialism and to the corrupt, unionized, far left IRS, the gestapo of America's political class. After all, the federal government ignores millions of illegals who are breaking U.S. immigration law every day and nothing happens to them. Selective enforcement of our laws is just as UN-Constitutional as the Obamacare law itself! (Supreme Court be damned as well). Our Founders pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. All we have to do is just say no to a scheme we all know is un-American and a violation of our most basic founding fundamentals of privacy, self reliance, limited government and individual freedom.

Sounds good, but unfortunately both health insurance, and health care, are pretty essential services, and now Obama has a complete stranglehold on how they are delivered. You cant get health insurance outside his system, because the mandates have forcibly cancelled all of those, despite explicit promisses to the contrary. A few doctors are rebelling by going all cash, and refusing to take any insurance patients, but they are rare. During prohibition, you could still get booze by going to a mafia run speak, but would you want to trust a mafia run speak doctor. And can you really evade the taxes you are forced to pay for this garbage. Remember they finally got Al Capone on tax evasion, not running a speakeasy. I fear soon the only remedies may involve the 2nd amendment.

Soviet playbook, folks: 1) defend, 2) deflect, 3) disinform...easy. Watch the flimflammery unfolding.Funny the "confluence" of historical world events this past October 2013:1) Former Brazilian President Lula declares in a national magazine (Veja) "Brazil is now socialist!" 5,000 Cuban "doctors" and medical care "specialists" from Fidel Castro's Cuban "Dream" were gerrymandered into every segment of Brazilian society...for Services to the populace (read: final stage of Marxism implementation in all Brazil).2) A report in "NEWS" detailing Michelle Obama's involvement with Marxist sympathizers and a personal friend acting on behalf of known USA Communist Activists receiving a "non-compete" RFP for the development of "Healthcare.gov&quot; web site.3) Subprime loans are rampant across America, and every bank executive knows this "house-of-cards" will explode again in USA's Real Estate sector for the same reasons TARPI and TARPII were quickly rushed into America's financial sector "too Big to Fail!"4) "BIBI" of Israel, thumbed his nose to Obama, expanding West Bank settlements with rapid development programs. And he has placated Abbas, Hamas as well as Hezbollah. Iran's nuclear program is next on his list.5) Saudi Arabian financial wizards are working overtime in England, aiming to spread England with their "brand" of Wahabi (Sharia) laws.6) 3,500 coal miners and electric plant operators marched on Washington DC demanding Congress and Senate answer to the closing of several coal mines, two coal fired electricity producing plants and crony-capitalism in the selection of "winners and losers" in Green Energy development. How's that "carbon tax" working for you? HUH? Pure smoke and mirrors, folks. Now, Obama wants to eliminate poor countries only source of heat and power... COAL!!! Choking america's once proud energy and power sector by bringing it to "her knees" is truly reprehensible. Soviet-style Marxism is rampant, all around us and being foisted upon We The People across all these fruited plains. WAKE-UP, Damn it! Stop this march towards oblivion. It will take 35 years (one full generation) to undo this travesty of law and order. Justice has truly been "blinded!"Pray. Amen. God Bless America. Join a Tea Party.

"They know all right. They just don’t care. And if they don’t know, explaining it to them won’t make much difference. Either they’re on the government dole and happy to stay there, or they have drunk the Progressive kool-aid and are intent on committing intellectual and political suicide."